Psychoanalysis and Religion

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION

ABRAHAM CRONBACH
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio

Psychoanalysis leads to the real motives in behavior, in contrast with supposed or
professed motives. It may thus serve to reveal a person's true self, and so reinforce
religious self-searching.

Psychoanalysis would clarify religious controversy by disclosing the actual motives
lying behind religious attitudes.

The real reasons for the success or the failure of devices in religious education would
appear. Mixed or obscured motives in the teacher could be evaluated in the interests
of a more sincere educational process.

A suggested list of subconscious interests in religious belief and action is given to
indicate the direction in which inquiry would be led.

A new technique for religious development would be made possible by an under-
standing of sublimation.

I

The most valuable illumination that psychoanalysis has to
offer is that touching the disparity between real motives on the
one hand and alleged or avowed, professed or supposed, motives
on the other. The problem of psychoanalysis may, with close
approximation to exactness, be characterized as the ascertain-
ment of the real motive, using the word "motive," of course, as
interchangeable with the "wish" or the "desire" of the psycho-
analytic writers. Whether in dreams or in neuroses or in ordi-
nary waking experience, one motive is consciously professed
while another is half-consciously or subconsciously or uncon-
sciously entertained. In a dream, our apparent concern may
be to escape a pursuing beast or foe, although our real concern
may be something sexual. The neurotic may suffer from
insomnia the underlying purport of which may be an Oedipus
or Electra complex. A politician may believe himself devoted
to social reform, yet, could he look deeply into himself, he
might discover his real motive to be self-aggrandizement, while
the expert analyst probing still deeper might discern who knows
what infantile sadistic or exhibitionistic vestiges.

588

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 589

There is such a thing as taking stock of one's self. Periods
of self-examination for winnowing the true motives from the
presumed are enjoined by all religions. "Search me, O God,
and know my ways; try me and know my thoughts," said the
Psalmist. Nor is the elaborate apparatus of psychoanalysis
always necessary in order to expose the duality. "Ofttimes
a work seemeth to be of charity," says Thomas a Kempis, " and
it is rather a work of the flesh; because natural inclination,
self-will, hope of reward, and desire of our own interest are
motives seldom absent." The outbreaks of petulance on the
part of persons engaged in public or charitable endeavors betray
only too frequently the dominance of the amour propre in the
background over the altruism in the foreground.

In the domain of controversy and in the domain of education
and consequently in the domain of religion embracing, as this
does, controversial and educational tasks, these considerations
are of overwhelming significance.

The paramount theme in every contention is duplicity of
motive. Where such is not suspected and insinuated, alterca-
tion and its handmaid, sarcasm, have scant food for subsistence.
"Wilson found it necessary to cancel the G.A.R. appointment
but he did have leisure to address the Confederate veterans."
"The church is solicitous for the salvation of your soul; of
course, prayers and masses cost money." "He hasn't any
money to pay his debts but he does have money for a trip to
the coast." "Congress can appropriate billions for military
purposes and millions for the study of hogs, fish, and chickens,
but it takes years to get a small appropriation for child and
maternity welfare." "He cannot attend church; he is too
busy at the card table." All querulous censures seem to be
directed not so much at the assumedly real motive of the person
censured as at the presumed discrepancy between the real motive
and the avowed. Hypocrisy is the most prolific of charges.

The motive predicated of us by our antagonist is as likely to
be false as the motive defensively avowed by ourselves. Never-

590 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

theless, all controversy appears to move in the sphere of motives
that are seldom real but nearly always assumed. Spinoza is
probably right in his assertion that, could we glimpse the real
motives of ourselves and of others, there would be no antip-
athies and consequently no quarrels. The real motives on
both sides of any quarrel are perhaps mutually more tolerable
than the instinctive concealment of them would imply.

Or take the matter of education. The application of psy-
choanalysis to pedagogy is undoubtedly among the hopeful
prospects of the future. Interest and sympathy are funda-
mental in education, but where are interest and sympathy
rooted if not in the individual's motives ? To awaken interest
and sympathy is the problem of the school mistress and of the
statesman alike. From the games of the nursery to the persua-
sion of the world, success depends upon the effectiveness of the
appeal to the desires by which human beings are actuated.
Tact and diplomacy, indispensable in the kindergarten as on
the rostrum are also akin to the perception of underlying moti-
vations. One's own self-discipline requires such knowledge;
speed or dilatoriness, achievement or failure, depending upon
the connection established or not yet established between the
subject of study on the one hand and our innermost proclivities
on the other.

II

Let us now apply these thoughts to the questions of religious
controversy and religious education.

The interminable disputations in the religious domain are
due to misapprehension of motives. While tenets and cere-
monies are the ostensible points at issue, motives are the actual
factors involved. Yet each side is misinformed concerning its
own no less than concerning its opponent's real motives. The
flimsy logic and the conspicuous irritability characterizing these
discussions evidence this; as also the fact that controversy
ceases, although no other agreement is reached, the very mo-
ment that one side recognizes the "sincerity," that is, the worthy

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 591

motivation of the other. When controversy is at its bitterest,
each side affirms its own motive to be justice and truth, with
falsehood, greed, or arrogance as the motive of the other side.
Even when the antagonism is mild, the intimations of error
with which the opponent is charged carry with them the insinu-
ation that there are volitional causes of the error, " wilful error,"
as the phrase goes. In this spirit "Homousion" has fought
"Homoiusion," Atheist has been arrayed against Theist and
Theist against Atheist, Trinitarian has contended with Unita-
rian, Protestant with Catholic, Liberal with Conservative,
Rabbinite with Karaite, Pharisee with Sadducee, and thus
throughout the history of religious conflict.

But what if investigation were to show family affection or
self-preservation or "free exercise of personality" or even the
sexual inexorabilities to be the true motives involved? Yes,
what if behind the diversity of doctrine there should prove to
be an identity of purpose ? What if it were to develop that
"the objects on both sides are virtually the same," as President
Wilson said of the belligerents in the Great War ? Obviously
the course of the controversy would be profoundly affected.
How much less sterile, in all events, religious discussion would
become could we grapple with the real points at issue and cease
to flounder among the spurious points! We would no longer
reply to him who is inordinately attached to his social group,
by proving that the earth revolves around the sun or to him
who is enamored of his ancestry by demonstrating that the
Pentateuch is of post-exilic origin.

Relative to all of this we might then proceed to put to psy-
choanalysis some further questions. We have observed that
loyalty to truth can be a motive avowed although not actually
cherished. Does it ever happen, however, that avowal and
fact coincide? Is there such a thing as perfect objectivity,
devotion to truth unalloyed ?

Again, would a person completely devoted to truth be likely
to engage in controversy ? Is the truth-seeking attitude com-

592 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

patible with the controversial attitude ? The f amiliar psycho-
analytic term for the truth-seeking attitude is "the reality
principle." Can the susceptibility toward disputation harmon-
ize with the reality principle? Is not perhaps the very soul
of controversy non-reality, its very essence that misconstruc-
tion of motives in one's self and in others already discussed ?

Another possible query is this: The "reality principle"
itself — may it not be a special manifestation of something more
nearly fundamental such as "the instinct of self-preservation"
or "the instinct of grappling with the world" or whatever else
psychoanalysis may divulge ? One is reminded in this connec-
tion of the pragmatic school in philosophy which regards truth
as "that which works out in practice." Reality is, according
to pragmatism, an attribute of man's handling of the universe
rather than of the universe independent of human reaction.
Were psychoanalysis to find the reality principle to be a phase
of some deeper "self-preservation" or "world-confronting"
principle, its conclusions would be, in a marked degree, ancillary
to those of the pragmatic philosophy.

Ill

We proceed now to the question of education in the religious
domain, using "education" in a sense broad enough to include
not merely preaching and instruction but all forms of propa-
ganda, persuasion, inspiration, and edification. The problem,
here as elsewhere, bifurcates into two questions: (i) What is
the end in view ? (2) What are the means best adapted to the
end?

Before answering the first of these questions, it may be
necessary to meet the preliminary question whether the end
of religious endeavor is something that admits of verbal expres-
sion. Language is fully capable of designating the subordinate
ends of life such as health, food, shelter, order, recreation, law-
fulness, etc., which are themselves but means toward higher and
larger ends. Whether fife's ultimate end is amenable to fin-

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 593

guistic designation is not easy to decide and yet, when religion
is under consideration, we may not stop short of life's ultimate
end. What is the measure of adequacy of such words as
"God," "Salvation," "Love," "Personality," "Self-realiza-
tion," "Life more abundant," "Heaven," etc., as denominatives
of the final goal ? Even should we fail to justify these terms
as nomenclature for life's ultimate, we may still find their use
warrantable as indexes of the direction in which the ultimate
lies. They may, in mathematical parlance, be variables though
not constants. They may be signposts though not the destina-
tion.

Outside of the religious domain, it does not require unusual
introspection to disclose the ends that are sought. Where the
object is to learn a science or a language, to amass wealth, to
enact a law, to institute a social reform and the like, the end
is some definite, clear-cut, objective state of affairs. With the
religious ends, it is otherwise. In religious teleology, the entire
human personality is involved and this includes of course the
unconscious which is said to be the greater part of that person-
ality. The more, therefore, that we understand the uncon-
scious, the more we shall comprehend regarding the ends of
human existence. The summum bonum must remain a mystery
as long as the greater part of the personality seeking the sum-
mum bonum abides in mystery.

The same must be said about religious methodology. Not
only for the sake of interest and sympathy already noted as
essential in all education but for additional and unique reasons
must religion disinter the motives underlying. Since the ends
involve the entire personality, including the unconscious, the
means must reckon with the unconscious. The unconscious
belongs to the very raw material of religious education. It is
that which is to receive the education. What, for instance, is
the unconscious utility and effect of our customary religious
equipment and resources, literary, musical, artistic, architec-
tural, oratorical, financial, social ? For good or for ill what is

594 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

the unconscious potency of our churches, songs, phrases, stories,
creeds, paintings, sermons, classes, church receptions, and
entertainments? That these often fail of their purpose —
inspiration, consolation, moralization, or whatever that pur-
pose may be — is patent to the friendliest. Why do they fail ?
If these means fail, what means will succeed ?

Moreover, what is the r61e, in this connection, of the reality
principle just alluded to ? How shall we who are scientifically
inclined substantiate our conviction that obscurantism, dogma-
tism, and sentimentalism are wrong and that the scientific atti-
tude of undeviating search for facts is ethically as well as
physically imperative? Allied to this is the further inquiry:
What religious aptitudes, if any, harmonize with the reality
principle? Which violate the principle and which affront it
most flagrantly ?

Even more salient than the motives in the learner's psyche
are those in the religious teacher's or leader's psyche. How
often is the teacher's character as an individual and his effi-
ciency as an instructor impaired by adulterated motivations.
Ambition edges up against aspiration. The desire for prestige,
admiration, or financial betterment breaks the singleness of
purpose in the religious teacher's soul, perturbs and emasculates
his efforts. Add to this the sectarian and the racial, the social
and political complications of religious endeavor. Group
interests of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews mingle with the
true religious motivations in the minds of teachers and learners,
leaders and followers alike hampering or preventing progress
toward the "highest good." How shall these adulterations be
detected and excluded ? If psychoanalysis can render assistance
on this head, its religious value were inestimable.

rv

A tentative division of the field could offer the following lines
of inquiry: (i) doctrines; (2) rituals; (3) phrases; (4) various
combinations of doctrines, rituals, and phrases figuring in the

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 595

preferences and aversions of various individuals. Opposition
or aversion to certain doctrines, rituals, and phrases is as impor-
tant, from our standpoint, as belief and acceptance. The mo-
tivation behind the negative is as significant as the motivation
behind the affirmative. Indeed, we are told by the psycho-
analysts that the unconscious has no negative but that some
latent affirmation is the counterpart of every conscious nega-
tion. We must therefore probe to the unconscious bases, not
only of the belief in God, immortality, miracles, etc., but also
of the opposition to those beliefs.

Anterior to any inquiry or real knowledge in the matter, let
us, for purely illustrative purposes, venture a few guesses why
a given individual or class of individuals may affirm belief in
God. (1) Esteem for parents or elders who held and taught
that belief. (2) Race or class loyalty. (3) Resentment of the
non-believer's implied disrespect for the believer's parents,
elders, race, class, or for the believer himself. (4) Unwillingness
to "take chances." (5) The domineering instinct. (6) Reluc-
tance to be troubled with doubts and questionings. (7) Dread
of public opinion involving jeopardy of monetary, professional,
or social prospects. (8) Gratification over escape from some
pain or danger. (9) The experience of mystic satisfactions
such as "the peace that passeth understanding." Would the
psychoanalyst call this experience the sublimation of a dis-
agreeable repression ?

It will be noticed, in our conjectural analysis, that we have
boldly ignored the "arguments" for belief in God. This is
because we are concerned not with "arguments," but with the
real reasons. Arguments are camouflage. We should pause
for the arguments only long enough to spy out of them the
traces of the actual motivations.

Perhaps the expert analyst will find implicated in the God
belief factors much different from those conjecturally enumer-
ated above. Like the expert in chemistry, he may discover
that what the layman regards as elementary is not an element

596 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

but a compound. Esteem for parents, class consciousness,
mystic raptures, etc., may in turn admit of analysis into ingre-
dients more rudimentary.

Every religious doctrine should be submitted to psycho-
analytic scrutiny, including, as already stated, not only belief in
God, immortality, revelation, miracles, atonement, resurrec-
tion, transubstantiation, etc., but also the rejection of those
beliefs. Curious questions are sure to arise. Here is one : How
account for the ascendancy of the illogical in religion ? Why
are men who are rigidly logical in other matters ready to relax
their mental vigilance in matters of creed ?

Rituals also should be studied. The recondite motivations
behind prayer, genuflections, candles, communion, hymn sing-
ing, benedictions, baptism, scripture reading, and the countless
other rites should be exhumed. Professed and alleged reasons
should speedily be abandoned and diligent search made for the
real reasons. We may have to stand prepared for amazing
revelations of masochism, sadism, exhibitionism, or of astound-
ing struggles against these and other crudely primitive im-
pulses at the root of the diverse attitudes manifested in ritual
matters.

Still more extensive is the field of religious phraseology.
What, for instance, was in the psyche of Tertullian when he said
"credo quia absurdum" or of the modern conservative when he
berates "infidel science" ? What is the unconscious import of
" God bless you," "The glory of God," "Life everlasting, world
without end," "Inner peace," "Inner light," and even the
parallels, in real life, to the jest about "that blessed word
Mesopotamia " ? The entire realm of religious literature would
eventually fall within this section of the field. The unique
religious potency of the unintelligible should especially receive
attention. Why is it that the phrases and books that people
understand least are those by which they are edified most?
Like the illogical in doctrine, the unintelligible in phraseology
is often the most compelling. Why ?

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 597

Particular stress should be laid upon the emotional concom-
mitants of the several preferences and aversions. In the entire
scope of religious expression, there is hardly a doctrine, ritual, or
phrase but evokes in diverse individuals or in the same indi-
vidual at different times, diverse reactions ranging from indiffer-
ence to martyrdom, from jocularity to tragedy. Why this
diversity ?

Finally, we encounter the striking combinations of tendencies
in various individuals. Why will people accept certain doc-
trines and rituals while rejecting others even at the cost of glar-
ing inconsistency? There are Jews, for instance, who follow
the dietary laws at home yet flout them outside of their homes
or who will vehemently object to the holding of a religious ser-
vice on any day except the traditional Sabbath although them-
selves spending the traditional Sabbath at their customary
occupations. Christians will accept the New Testament teach-
ings about hell fire and about the end of the world yet ignore
the New Testament teachings about poverty and meekness.
Seventh Day Adventists evince extraordinary scruple about
observing the Old Testament Sabbath yet would not dream of
observing the Old Testament teachings about circumcision,
fringes, and the Levirate marriage. Examples could be cited
ad infinitum. The idiosyncracies of selection in religious
matters would constitute a sphere of inquiry unusually fas-
cinating.

V

In seeking these psychoanalytic undercurrents, be it noted,
we are entering upon an entirely new departure. Religious
discussion has hitherto circled around the scientific or the his-
torical or, at the lowest, the politic value of given creeds and
rites. Our concern is the psychoanalytic value. A doctrine
may be objectionable from a scientific or historical standpoint
and yet, like a dream image, or better, like an excellent novel,
epic, or drama, express or arouse something of value in the
unconscious sphere. These considerations are closely akin to

598 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

those involved in judging a work of art. The resurrection doc-
trine, for instance, may have an artistic or psychoanalytic value
even though, taken as a scientific or historical statement, the
doctrine may be revolting. Suppose that the resurrection
belief chanced to indicate hidden longings to aid those who are
handicapped by poverty, or suppose that the ritual of baptism
should be found to be somehow interwoven with a sense of com-
passion for the aged, or suppose that a phrase like "the Holy
Catholic Church" were to prove, upon analysis, to be linked
with an unconscious resolve to live an orderly, systematic life;
or suppose, conversely, that psychoanalysis were to detect at
the unconscious foundations of a given doctrine, ritual, or
phrase, or group of doctrines, rituals, and phrases, a sentiment
of class pride, exclusiveness, and arrogance, or — as happens
probably with regrettable frequency — an unwillingness to face
the realities of life, a reluctance to discriminate between wish
and fact. Is it not obvious that a psychoanalytic value may
attach to a given doctrine ritual or phrase or group of such
entirely different from the scientific or historical value ?

Psychoanalysis has much to say about sublimation. Primi-
tive tendencies, socially undesirable, such as promiscuity, can-
nibalism, and the like are, we are told, either repressed, often
with pathological consequences, or are, under happier circum-
stances, sublimated by being discharged into channels of inno-
cent diversion or of useful endeavor. Suppose that careful
analysis were to show this benign process of sublimation
expressed, assisted, or inspired by certain beliefs, rituals, and
phrases. Since the days of Aristotle, a celebrated concept in
art criticism has been that of the "Catharsis," "purification
through pity and terror." Various religious beliefs, rituals,
and phrases have undoubtedly voiced or exercised a similar
cathartic propensity. Consider, for instance, the phrase about
"the peace that passeth understanding." Does not some
identity between the catharsis of Aristotle, the sublimation of
psychotherapy and the "wonderful peace," "the healing grace"

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION 599

of religion seem highly probable ? Suppose now that certain
properties of religion could be shown to aid (or to hinder) the
work of sublimation. Is not this a feature requiring appraisal
entirely independent of any scientific or historical estimate
that the doctrine, ritual, or phrase may merit ?

VI

An appeal should be directed to all competent psychoana-
lysts, both in America and abroad, to send to some duly
interested, qualified, and responsible individual or committee
whatever findings with regard to the problems above men-
tioned they may encounter in the course of their psycho-
analytic practice. The material should be collated, sifted,
classified, and studied with a view to the ultimate publication
or perhaps periodic publication of the results. Each stage of
the research would probably produce new concepts, viewpoints,
and bases of discrimination serviceable in subsequent research.
It goes without saying that unusual caution will have to be
exercised in dealing with the investigator's personal equation.
Thoroughgoing objectivity is indispensable, any prejudice or
bias, even unconscious, except with due allowance, being fatal
to trustworthy results. Still it is not too much to hope that
this procedure faithfully and consistently followed may either
solve or at least throw new light upon the age-old problems
of religious controversy and religious education.